N recently took the IELTS Speaking test in India and remembered the following questions:
Speaking test
Interview
– What is your name?
– What should I call you?
– Where do you live?
– Do you like your hometown?
– Would you recommend it to others?
– Let’s talk about water. Do you drink tap or bottled water?
– Is bottled water affordable where you live?
– Were you ever in a situation when you couldn’t find drinking water?
Cue Card
Talk about an occasion when someone gave you something you really wanted. Please say:
– What it was
– When you got it
– Who gave it to you
– How you felt when you received it.
Follow up question: What did you do with this item?
Discussion
– Do you think people own more things than they really need these days?
– Are some things more important than others to show a person’s status in the society?
– What kind of things?
– Why do you think people want to show their social status?
– Has this also been people’s desire in the past, or is this a recent change?
If your target IELTS score is in the range of Band 7.5 to 8.5, today’s post may be especially helpful, because we have quite a line up of IELTS high scorers sharing their best tips. Nothing beats learning from people who have been where you are and achieved what you are striving for!
Let’s start with Radhika, a young lady from India who got Band 7.5 in IELTS. Radhika said:
– My suggestion would be to practise as much as you can. Once you become familiar with the accents in the Listening test then gets much easier. For Reading try to practise with a timer on. Your aim should be to finish in 50 mins rather than 60. For Speaking find a partner, and if you don’t have one then make a mirror your best friend. Focus on your pace, vocabulary, eye contact and content. Writing was a bit hard for me. I had practised all the questions from our IELTS-Blog. If possible, first write your own answer and only then read other answers online to the same questions. They will give you new viewpoints, vocabulary and a better structure for your own answer.
Next we’d like to give the stage to Saika, a mechanical engineer from Bangladesh. Saika is a native Bengali speaker and got Band 8 in IELTS. She said:
– For my success, I am grateful to IELTS-Blog.com. This website helped me reach my desired band score in academic module. I subscribed to this website and got regular email notifications regarding most recent IELTS exam questions (specially for speaking and writing tests) and these made me prepared accordingly.
I would also like to thank Mrs. Simone Braverman for her stunning tips and techniques to conquer IELTS exam. I highly recommend this as a beneficial resource to all other students around the world.
And finally, our highest scorer and the winner of IELTS Results competition, Tam Nguyen from Vietnam. Tam is a doctor, and his IELTS score is the near-perfect Band 8.5! He has advice for you on each of the four IELTS sub-tests:
Speaking: one advantage is that most questions are predictable, so preparation is recommended. You can use free text-to-speech websites to practice your pronunciation.
Listening: the first step is trying to be able to understand much of the conversation. When you get there, it means that your listening ability is good enough. Then you can practice IELTS listening samples to hone your exam skills such as taking notes, recognizing keywords, understanding paraphrasing. For multiple choice questions, it is advisable that you take notes when you listen.
Reading: reading techniques are widely available, so it is useful to apply them. However, reading is about testing your comprehension, so a larger vocabulary will lead to a better understanding and eventually a higher score. Therefore it comes down to learning as many new words as possible, which takes time.
Writing: make sure you know how essays are marked so you invest your energy in the right places. Your writing should be checked by someone else. Samples are easy to find on the Internet, but not all samples advertised as “band 9 essays” live up to their promises, so please choose your resources carefully.
